Question: 5 people can paint 4 walls in 40 minutes. How many minutes will it take for 7 people to paint 5 walls? Round to the nearest minute.
Explanation: We know the following about the number of walls $w$ painted by $p$ people in $t$ minutes at a constant rate $r$ $w = r \cdot t \cdot p$ $\begin{align*}w &= 4\text{ walls}\\ p &= 5\text{ people}\\ t &= 40\text{ minutes}\end{align*}$ Substituting known values and solving for $r$ $r = \dfrac{w}{t \cdot p}= \dfrac{4}{40 \cdot 5} = \dfrac{1}{50}\text{ walls painted per minute per person}$ We can now calculate the amount of time to paint 5 walls with 7 people. $t = \dfrac{w}{r \cdot p} = \dfrac{5}{\dfrac{1}{50} \cdot 7} = \dfrac{5}{\dfrac{7}{50}} = \dfrac{250}{7}\text{ minutes}$ $= 35 \dfrac{5}{7}\text{ minutes}$ Round to the nearest minute: $t = 36\text{ minutes}$